Jabari Parker cites Coach K as big reason for choosing Duke

Jabari Parker ended months of intense speculation by announcing on Thursday that he would attend Duke University after high school.

Parker is a consensus top five recruit for the 2013 class. The 6-foot-8 forward from Chicago cited Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as a big reason why he chose the Blue Devils.

“What brought me to the decision is the history. Duke is always going to be a team in the tournament. You can’t go wrong at the program. And most importantly, the long-term investment — I feel like if I go there, I can get a good degree,” Parker said during his Thursday announcement.

“Coach K, that’s one of the best coaches ever. I wanted to be able to experience the things that he has next year.

“[Coach K] has played a key role in my development throughout high school, just telling me basic things and what I need to do,” Parker said, per the News & Observer. “I just felt comfortable.”

When Parker first narrowed the list of schools he was considering for college, 10 made the cut. Those schools included: Kentucky, Stanford, Michigan State, Kansas, Florida, Duke, BYU, Georgetown, DePaul, and North Carolina. Parker then removed Georgetown and Kentucky from the list, and a few months later he dropped Kansas, DePaul, and North Carolina.

According to Sports Illustrated, before his visits to the remaining schools, Parker and his brother made the following list to help analyze his decision.

Duke seemed like the clear favorite months ago, and it’s obvious Coach K was a big reason. It also helped when Coach K arranged to take Parker’s father, who has kidney problems, to a dialysis center on their visit to campus.